Two Ways of Viewing the River

Now, when I have mastered the language of this water and had learned to know all the insignificant features that bordered the great river as familiarly as I knew the letters of the alphabet, I have made an important acquisition. But I have lost something, too. (Niemann 53-54)I always keep in mind a certain wonderful sunset which I witnessed when steamboats were new to me. A vast expanse of the river has declined by blood red background light gold, through which a solitary log came floating, black and found a place in a long, slanting mark ...